4x12, Big Surprise
by A wee Moose
Summary: Alot of pleasant surprises and a long night in Sickbay


**Captain's Personal Log. Its been a slow month. We had to escort freighters for the last two weeks. But otherwise, no battles. No viral outbreak panic to respond to. Boring. **

Rakurai Stryker hit the botton to end the log entry. He sighed and looked at the clock, the time is 18:03, his shift is over as the main senior crew's. He smiled, _Now is Party time._

"Writing Letters"

**Alice Brangwin - Living Room of her quarters**

Alice was replying to a letter that her Sprite friend, Specky, sent her yesterday.

**What kind of fights do you and Stryker get into ?** Specky asked.

Alice smiled, and replied, "Oh, the most intense kind! Strong passions are hand in hand with desirable ones and hateful, pensive emotions. We know each other better than anyone in existance, and we will know exactly how to push each other just a triffle too far. Another case of being too stubborn."

Alice saved the letter and headed to Dot's Diner.

**18:09 hours  
Dot's Diner**

Suddenly there were catcalls for a speech. Stryker held up his hands, quieting them down. He took his time. "I hereby ban anyone from throwing me a birthday party in the future." he said jokily. "No, seriously, I will vent the next person out the airlock if anyone tries to hold a birthday party for me."

"Enough with the sentiment - cut the damn cake!" someone yelled. Stryker searched the crowd, a nasty glare, unable to find the jokester. He had a feeling the voice belonged to Dr Karen Coleridge.

"It's your birthday, Kawaii. Indulge a little bit." Alice gave Stryker a wink and an impish grin as she leaned forward to kiss him. Her red hair fell toward him as she did so, silken curled locks gently brushing Stryker's face.

Alice pulled back as he smiled bashfully, "I suppose you're right." he said. Edenians did not celebrate birthdays, but Alice always insisted. And he really hate saying _No_ to her.

She got a heady feeling from lack of oxygen to the brain, caused her to close her eyes and sway backward on her feet. He caught Alice by the waist, holding her for a second, and kissed her, suddenly quite aware of the other people in the room, all 61 of them, half of them proberly looking at them right now. He let her go, Alice affectionately ran a finger along his lips, touched his chin as she walked past him. Stryker smiled a little.

She returned to corner of the room where the lovebirds Sammy and Tiko was gathered along with Kiya and Demi. Demi was enjoying her very first social gathering, the very first time she ever left sickbay. She was chatting with Karen Coleridge and an Andorian engineer. Demi waved Stryker over and gathered Alice, Sammy and Tiko

"mmmmmm, Alice, Captain." Demi said nervously, "I don't know how to tell you this, but I have been scanning everyone in this room, as my programming does by default."

"So ?" Stryker said, perplexed.

Demi lowered her voice, she held her "breath" for five seconds, steeling herself, then let the air out, "Alice is expecting twins. As is Sammy."

Stryker looked at Alice, her eyes filled with excitement. As was Stryker's, although a felt a bit of fear he could not understand. "This calls for celebration !" he called out.

Sammy and Alice reached for champaine but Karen put herself between the drinks tray and the two red haired women. Alice was ready to protest.

"Sorry, ladies, you're cut off," Karen said with a lopsided smile, turning to the waitress who held the tray. "I'll take another ginger ale when you get a moment, and would you please get Mrs. Brangwin and Ms. MacIvor the non-alcoholic beverages of their choice?"

"Every time you turn around, you're tripping over doctors on this ship," Alice grumbled, but then she stopped short as she realized she didn't recognize the newcomer. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"No, you probably wouldn't. Please forgive my poor manners." Karen extended a hand to shake. "My name is Karen Coleridge, Dr. Black Wolf's new assistant. I was also one of the physicians who consulted on your case when you were hospitalized last year. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

Alice studied her carefully for a few moments, her expression guarded, and then offered a thin smile. "I don't really remember anything from that time... but I understand I have you and your colleagues to thank for saving my sanity, if not my life, so thank you." She indicated Karen's soft drink with a wry grin. "So, Doctor, are you expecting too, or is there some other reason you're not partaking of the cheer?"

Karen began laughing, the rich alto sound echoing off the walls. "No, I'm on call tonight. An entirely less blessed reason than either of yours, I fear."

"I offered to take call, but Dr. Black Wolf thought I'd enjoy the social interaction," Demi chimed in, wearing a goofy smile. The hologram's face was flushed, and she had developed an odd clicking to her speech. "And I'm having a _wonderful_ time!"

"Okay, 'fess up - who added 'intoxication' to your interaction matrix?" Karen said, rolling her eyes, steering the EMH toward an open table. "Never mind, we're going to teach you a new social skill - 'sobering up.'"

"Oh, but this is so much fun," Demi sing-songed, her head lolling against Karen's shoulder. "And don't you think that Andorian guy is just the cutest thing ever?"

"He's really not my type..." Karen glanced over at the engineer, and her face darkened as the pieces fell together. "Oh, that is just sick - _you got my EMH drunk?_"

Ten minutes later, Karen returned to the group, smiling calmly. "Now, as you were saying..."

**Dot's Diner**

About an hour after the party started, Captain Rakurai Stryker had a few drinks, and was starting to feel tipsy. Everyone was chatting with Alice and Sammy, congratulating them.

Predictbly enough, Ensign Rachel Skarsten got into another fight with a Bolian.

The party-goers witnessed Demi, the EMH, hilariously drunk.

Stryker gazed at Alice, wistfully thinking of birthdays past and indulgences he had not allowed himself. He thought that perhaps tonight might be the last he dwelled on those regrets.

He had watched Alice closely, carefully all evening. Their eyes met constantly and she had rarely been more than a step away from him. She was like his shadow; ever present but never invasive or unwelcome. And her would find himself incapable of explaining if it were ever absent. He remembered with a slight thrill how she'd touched him frequently - familiar, lingering grazes that seemed to invite more.

Alice reflected on the subtle messages she'd been sending all evening, hoping Stryker had picked up on them. Only moments earlier the remainder of the Pretoria's senior staff had departed, merry and full of well wishes. The feel of joy still hung in the air, as did several loony party favors selected and arranged by Sabaqwa Isth.

A few minutes later, Stryker and Alice returned to their quarters. She was glad to have this time with Stryker, and in fact had a very specific agenda for the rest of the night. Alice almost giggled nervously in anticipation.

A Betazoid melody filled the air and the lights came down almost imperceptibly. She stalked purposefully back into the dimmed living area and her eyes met Stryker's instantly. From what she saw in them it was clear he had not missed her point. She smiled easily, beautifully, her features lighting up.

Having already guessed at her intentions, Stryker was now certain. "Computer, secure doors and activate Privacy mode."

"Come here," she said, hiding her hands benignly behind her back. They embraced and kissed.

Alice smiled when she tasted his lips, "Mmmmm ... chocolate rum balls."

**Deck Eight, Assistant Medical Officer's Quarters  
2347 hours**

Bone-weary, yet wearing a happy smile, Karen sat at her desk, wearing a light fleece sweatshirt and a pair of running pants. The party for Captain Stryker had been a blast, and she'd found herself immensely enjoying the chance to get out and have some "social interaction," as Demi put it. _Getting that cute Ops officer's number didn't hurt any, either,_ she thought, looking over at the hastily scribbled-upon bar napkin with a soft laugh.

Karen laced her hands behind her head, leaning back in the chair contemplatively. The PADD from Marshall, containing the invitation for the Exeter alumni holiday party, still rested in her uniform pocket, and she mused for a moment on how best to answer it. _I don't think it's that late there, and I have a pile of comms time saved up..._

"Computer, date and time. Earth, North America, Bozeman, Montana."

"The local date is December 26. The local time is 1849 hours," the LCARS' dispassionate voice replied.

"Open subspace communications link, personal authorization Coleridge delta six-one-seven." Her fingers flew over the desktop console, inputting the codes by memory. The screen flashed over to the UFP logo, displaying "ESTABLISHING CONNECTION" for a few seconds, and then flashed over again as a handsome young man answered the call. "Markham-Witt residence, Brhey, Doc, Merry Christmas! How've you been?"

"Merry Christmas to you too, Brandon. I'm doing great - how are you guys?"

"We're doing all right," the teenager said, flashing an all-too-familiar grin. "We had half a dozen head try to graze on a frozen creek yesterday, and Mom spent all last night and most of today patching them back up. Dad and I about busted a gut, watching Mom drag out her old Starfleet Medical doctor's kit to go treat a bunch of steers."

Karen chuckled at the mental image of Ashleigh performing triage on injured bovines. "Ouch, and I thought my call schedule was nasty."

Brandon smiled in reply. "Y'know, she was just talking about you the other day, too. Mostly wondering where you'd disappeared to."

"Brandon, who's on the line?" a male voice could be heard over the link, and Brandon looked towards the source of the voice. "Hold on a sec. Dad, it's Dr. Coleridge!"

"Quit hogging the line, then!" A tall, muscular man, his face cut with the unmistakable lines of command, leaned into the frame. "Lieutenant, I _demand_ an explanation for this behavior - why have over seven weeks passed between calls?"

_Yup, same old Marshall._ "I fell into a black hole, Sir," she said with a lopsided grin. "Anyway, I mostly called to RSVP for the holiday get-together, but I figured I'd catch up with you guys since I have the comms time saved. Is Ashleigh around?"

"Yes, and waiting with bated breath to hear how you're doing," that familiar British-accented voice said, and the smile leapt to her face of its own accord.

"Mass casualties, getting beat up by telepaths, improving alien relations, rebuilding Sickbay from scratch, one rather rowdy birthday party, and to top it off, some engineer programmed my EMH to get drunk. Where should I start?"

They talked for a good hour afterward, and when it finally came time to break the connection, there were four hands pressed to the screens - an interstellar approximation of a group hug. "See you in four weeks, Karen. Markham out."

A few moments and a change of clothes later, she crawled into bed and turned out the lights, smiling even in sleep.

Alice found herself looking up at familiar stars. She was on Headquarters of rebellion, the Maquis, located on Karissa's moon. 16 years ago, the site of betrayal and bloodshed in the heart of the Badlands.

Grey clouds boiled in the sky and the cold misty wind blew among the urban residential streets in loud gusts. Windows shook and the entire area held its breath in the calm before the storm. All the windows were shut and the sun was hidden even though it was only mid afternoon. The streets were deserted.

The swings tossed wildly in the large playground. The laughter echoed again. 19 year old Alice stood nearby, in complete shock. In cold terror. Alice watched as seventy-nine children were playing, watched over by a few parents and older siblings.

On the swings sat two young girls, 19 years of age. The first one, Sakura had serious eyes in her youthful face made her appear older. She had short dark brown hair spiked in the back but left straight in the front. Her hair looked almost black, bringing out her light skin complexion. Her eyes were green as grass. Her jeans were patched at one knee, the bottoms were frayed and her bright orange sweatshirt decorated with blue dragons hung limply over her slender frame.

Sakura's sister, Jubilation was the other swing smiled. Her odd light blue eyes seemed to light up. "Jubilee" wore black jeans and a sweatshirt. Her curly light brown hair hung loose midway down her back, sopping curls flung wildly in the howling wind.

Lightning flashed up in the clouds answered by thunder. A huge gust of wind blew yellow daffodils to and fro, bowing their graceful heads in submission to the wind. Mist flung in their faces and stung their eyes, but the young women did not mind. "Ah! I smell the ocean !" Sakura exclaimed. Jubilee smiled, "Yes, I love the ocean."

They swung and giggled at the wind caressing their faces and the spray from the clouds dousing their clothes for another minute. Then the rain truly began to fall. Sheets of rain pelted them but they did not notice. Within moments everyone were soaked to the skin, but still they swung. No one noticed the rain, a festive feeling hung in the air.

Above the city, come flashes of purple and green. Directed energy weapons and torpedoes. A green splash of green rained down over the town.

An explosion rang through the air, but no one except Alice took notice. Suddenly, Jem'Hadar rematerialized and started shooting everyone. From nearly 200 meters away, the genetically engineered monsters had amazing accuracy. Jubilee and Sakura were hit, their clothes were on fire in an instant. All around her bodies were dropping to the ground, dead or dying. One of the Bajoran men were hit by weapons fire, his 6' 5" frame fell on Alice.

Alice pushed the heavy body off of her and started running, crying as her feet hit the ground. Blood were splattered over roads and buildings, guts dripping everywhere, covering everything in vast swathes, as if a demented painter had gone wild with a 50 foot brush. And in the sky in front of her, was the face of a familiar Betazoid-Vulcan woman, her hair was a pale shade of gold, icy deep black-blue eyes. Lt.Cmdr. Miraeko looked at Alice with hatred, hatred she could actually feel.

**0314 hours - Alice and Stryker's quarters: Bedroom**

Alice woke up, freaked out, screaming and crying. Lashing out as everything and anything. In the chaos that followed Stryker held her tight, Alice realized she was sobbing. She was soon asleep, this time mercifully without dreams.

Nearly thirty minutes later Rakurai Stryker got up very slowly, reaching for his clothes before walking to sickbay.

**0355 hours**

_"Sickbay to Dr. Coleridge..."_

"Mmmph."

_"Hello, this is the Sickbay control desk. Is Dr. Coleridge there?"_

Groaning, groggy, Karen rolled over, slapping her commbadge into life. "Coleridge here. Go 'head."

_"Doctor, we just admitted a patient to the unit, and Dr. Strauss asked us to page you - he needs a STAT ophtho consult."_

All fatigue gone, Karen rolled out of bed, automatically beginning to change into her uniform. There were only three reasons to page an ophthalmologist out of bed at night: penetrating trauma, ocular burns, and acute glaucoma crisis. "Do you have any more information?" she asked, pulling on her pants and shoving her feet into her boots as she did so.

_"Edenian male, severe lacs and contusions to the face, concentrated around the nose and orbits. We're worried about an open globe."_

A few of the more colorful Marine curses rose to mind. Of course, there was only one Edenian, male or female, on board.

"I'll be up there in five minutes. Coleridge out."

**Liz Archer - Turbo lift**

"Computer, deck 08" said Liz in a loud voice. The turbo lift started to move. Mike sighed deeply and rolled his eyes and said, " Why do I get the feeling that this is not going to be a pleasant. "

Liz pushed Mike gently on his shoulder and said, "Come on, where is your scene of adventure. You will love it!" Mike smiled and shook his head.

Liz continued. ".. The holodeck program I have written will blow your mind. It is the ultimate adventures. Fighting the Klingons, escaping the borg vessel and so on.. The beauty of it all is that it plays out like a detective story. And I know that you love detective stories.. " Mike interrupted and said, "..The ultimate adventure. Yeah, I hear you. But I don't why I imagine that we would be sitting in a boat on a lake.. Listening to the water..."

Liz laughed. The doors opened and they left the lift, she replied. "Maybe next time, ok? " Mike looked like he didn't believe here. Liz stopped and lifted her hand and gave Mike a smile. "I, Elizabeth Stanni Archer, promise you that for our next date will be listening to the water and ..." Mike smiled and replied, "You better, since we will have a romantic dinner for two. Just you and me! ". Liz and Mike started to move towards available holodeck.

Mike said. "Hmm, so your second name is Stanni.. Isn't that a Betazoid name? " He looked at her like he waited for some explanation. A red colour spread on her cheeks. _Why did I mention my other name?_ Liz thought. She didn't like others to know her Betazoid side. Even if they where close to her.

When they arrived at the terminal Liz said with a mysterious voice tone, "Not necessarily! "

She turned to the terminal. "Computer, open program Liz Omega 2 of 6. " The doors to the holodeck opened and you could see the interior of a shuttle. Through the windows you could see that the shuttle was sationed around a huge green planet. Liz took her arms around Mikes and smiled and said. "We can talk about that later. Come let's go, the adventures are waiting us. "

**0356 hours**

Captain Rakurai Stryker arrived in sickbay a minute ago, with a howling hangover from last night's champagne. His face was badly scratched and he was in true agony.

Karen was due to come running through the doors any second now and Stryker sat there surrounded by med techs, trying to think up a story, a _lie_ to tell the Doctor.

He was also distracted, thinking of Alice, wondering what kind of dream made her go berzerk like that.

**Sickbay, Main Ward  
0358 hours**

As Karen strode into Sickbay, she didn't even need to ask the triage nurse where the captain was being treated; the throng around Bed 12 told her as much. She waved to the senior resident, a likable young Bolian with the rather improbable name of Strauss, who came right over as she approached. "Oh, thank goodness you got here so fast," he muttered, wringing his hands in distress. "I'm sorry we had to wake you..."

"No, don't worry, you did right to call. What happened to him?" Karen had lowered her voice to a murmur as well.

"He won't tell us, but his injuries suggest he was attacked. He has some serious lacerations around his eyes and orbits, the area around his mouth is badly contused, and he was bleeding rather freely from his respiratory passages. We stopped the bleeding and patched up most of the lacs, but his left eyelid is pretty well macerated and the eye looks sunken. He reports that he can't see very well, but that's pretty well a given with these injuries."

"Something's not right here. How the hell does an adult Edenian get his face bashed in," Karen mused softly. "You do a Seidel's?"

The resident nodded somberly. "Inconclusive. Nicitating membrane."

_That was dumb of me,_ Karen thought. The Seidel's test, which involved placing a few drops of a harmless fluorescent dye in the injured eye, had remained one of the easiest and surest ways to diagnose a penetrating eye injury for well over four hundred years. However, its drawback was that it only worked on species with a single eyelid - those with a second transparent lid could and often did simply slide it closed over the injury, resulting in a false negative.

"Okay, go get me an ophtho peripheral and some paracaine. I have a feeling we're going to be fixing that lid in the OR, but I'll examine him to be sure." She stopped at the scrub station to disinfect her hands, and then with a confidence more projected than felt, she parted the crowd of techs and walked over to the captain. "Hello there, Sir. I understand your eye is giving you some trouble?"

"It looks more like this staff has the eye problem," Stryker growled, indicating the group of medical personnel milling about, most of them simply gawking.

Karen couldn't quite restrain the lopsided smile. "All right, guys, last one who leaves gets to be my assistant." As the disappointed crowd rapidly dispersed, she turned back to the captain. "I'm going to take a look at your eyes and see what's going on, then. Can I ask what happened? It looks like you got into an argument with a snow-stoat."

"It was a holodeck accident," Stryker said, but he looked away as he spoke, and Karen noticed that the lighter patches of skin at his neck had acquired a soft petal glow. Leaving the question and the nagging voice at the back of her mind for now, she took the tricorder and the specialized peripheral Strauss handed her, and cracked the sterile vial of paracaine open with one hand. "All eyelids open, and look up at the ceiling, please?"

Fifteen minutes later, she was looking at an ophthalmologist's nightmare. _Holodeck accident, my ass,_ she thought as she methodically examined the eye. The left lid was torn in four different places, and while the eye wasn't actually ruptured, there was an ugly break in the iris, and a hyphema was forming as blood from the injury settled out in the anterior chamber. The only small blessing was that there was no retinal injury. _Assuming, of course, that he doesn't develop an occult tear or get ghost cell glaucoma._

"Computer, lights back to full," she said, closing the tricorder. "Sir, the good news is that your eye is still structurally intact - there's no evidence of any penetrating injury. However, your left eyelid is torn, and there's some internal damage to the eye. It is going to require surgical repair, and the sooner it's done, the better."

Stryker swore softly, then said in a resigned tone, "Very well. Just get it fixed."

"All right." Karen turned to the resident, who was hovering over her shoulder like a portly blue guardian angel. "Strauss, do me a favor? Go page Anesthesia for me, and then get the surgical permit signed for a blepharorrhaphy and an iridoplasty with AC drainage. I'm going to book OR 5 and meet you guys there."

As she strode toward the women's surgical locker, something disturbing occurred to her. _He didn't have any defensive wounds. He had to have known his attacker._

_Who is he covering for, and why?_

**Operating Room 5  
0443 hours**

The operation was done and over with about five minutes ago and the OR was cleaned up with extreme precision, medical professionals in every right.

Stryker readied himself for a verbal fight with Demi, the EMH or one of the medics, to get released. He honestly hated being held for observation. Then Demi surprised him by letting him go.

**Alice and Stryker's Quarters  
0859 hours**

Alice turned over. She knew she had a rough night, and she felt like crap. In the dark room, the clock read 0900. _Dang it...Stryker is late._

"Sweety, you need to get up," she told him, shaking him a little.

His eyes opened, "Duty officer's on the bridge Alice." He kissed her, "Unless we go to red alert."

She laid back down in the bed and pulled the blanket back up over her head. "Love you, Honey."

"I love you _Iidasenai_." Slipping his arms around her he gave her a small hug.

"Do we have to get up?" she mused from underneath the blanket.

"No." he smiled, "we can stay in bed as long as we want to."

"Lair" she smiled.

"I can be late. Paperwork is done, I'm yours all day." he said, "Besides ... something's wrong."

He knew her as well as she knew him, and nodded. "I had a rough night last night after we finally went to sleep."

"I noticed." he told her.

Alice sat up, pulling off the blanket down to her legs. Stryker put his hand in the small of her back and began massaging. "It's hurting just a bit." she admitted.

He gently rubbed her back and felt the knot of tension out. Then he leaned in and kissed the side of her neck. She closed her eyes and revelled in the warm contact. She needed that, finally relaxing. "I dont want to get up." he started complaining.

"Take a sick day." Alice suggested jokily.

Stryker looked at her and gently ran his fingers along her cheek. "Yes ma'am." he chunckled.

"Have you given thought about baby names ?" Alice asked. She smiled, blissful in knowing she's pregnant. Its the one thing she was told in the eight years of their marriage, will never happen.

"Wiuen Suenas or maybe Anndraia." he answered.

Alice gave it a thought, "Shinji, Dennis and Reb for boys. For girls, Abigail Rose. But then again, Mariko is a beautiful name. It is a common name meaning _child of true benefit_. Fitting name isn't it?"

Stryker agreed with a kiss. Alice noticed he flinched slightly.

"Or ..." Stryker prompted.

"Nyoko." Alice smiled as Stryker's hands played with her stomach, using his talons in such a way, it causes a delightful senation on and around the little stomach balge where the twins are growing. On the other hand, she also knew about the solomn promise he made long ago, which caused her some sadness. But overall, Alice felt very happy, and somewhat sleepy.

"What does Nyoko mean ?" he asked softly.

"Gem." Alice answered happily.

He kissed her on the ear, on the cheek, on the lips. She curled on her side, arm draped over his waist, looking contented as a cat. "As perfect a day as the laws of the universe will allow?" she wondered outloud.

"No, better."

"Computer, lights, reading intensity."

They kissed again, again Alice noticed he flinched slightly. "Heart, what happened to you ?"

His voice got stuck in his throat, which made Alice extremely anxious. She touched his face softly, her fingers on his cheeks, he flinched again. "Your skin is tender. You had it healed last night. Why ?" Alice softly demanded.

Stryker's voice was stuck in his throat for nearly six seconds, felt like an eternity. "You woke up, screaming and punching wildly." he said very softly, "you kept saying _Miraeko leave me alone_, _Mononoke, Vengeful spirit, be at peace. I have done you no harm._"

Stryker looked into her electric green eyes, she looked into his yellow eyes, full of hurt, Alice sobbed softly "Sorry Kawaii."

**10:12  
Stryker and Alice's Living Room**

"I am bored." Alice playfully moaned.

Stryker smiled, "I had a feeling you'd say that. I have an idea."

**1023 hours  
Stryker and Alice's Living Room**

Alice stepped out of the shower and getting dressed. She chose a flowing blue shirt and pants. Much to her shock, Stryker was dressed in his uniform. "Why ?" she asked him.

"I am the Captain. I have appearances to keep up."

Alice sighed deeply, then smiled. "When is the last time you had fun ? You remember fun and relaxation, don't you, kawaii ?"

**Sickbay, AMO's Office  
1030 hours**

Among the doodads and things decorating the AMO's office was a small wall plaque, made of lacquered wood, upon which was engraved a set of aphorisms. The plaque had been left by Karen's predecessor, and she'd decided to keep it there, more for the humor value than anything else. Today, though, it seemed to reflect the entire state of the universe in the Pretoria's Medical Department, and specifically one rather harried Assistant Medical Officer.

The plaque was entitled "Murphy's Laws of Medicine."

_"#1. Any patient who can code, will."_

The Science ensign with the all-but-healed compound leg fracture, the one who really shouldn't have been in Sickbay at all, threw a clot and went into cardiac arrest at 0455, just as Karen was stumbling back into bed from having put Captain Stryker's left eye back together.

_"#2. The number of staff in the department is inversely proportional to the severity of the emergency."_

As evidenced when two dozen Marines streamed into Sickbay at 0645, sporting various degrees of disruptor trauma to their hands, torsos and faces, courtesy of an early-morning firing range exercise and a set of incorrectly charged power cells. The accident occurred between shift changes and Demi was offline for repair of the Andorian engineer's handiwork, which left Karen, two nurses and two medtechs to triage and treat the patients, convince said patients that having a Vektor blow up in your face really does require a short Sickbay stay, and console the traumatized armorer who'd provided the faulty ammo.

_"#3. Bleeding always stops."_

In this case, because one Marine very nearly exsanguinated while traveling from the range to Sickbay with both thighs practically shredded from the blasts. Thankfully, they'd been able to close the wounds and get him back to stable condition. It was a shame the team hadn't been able to fix that _other_ injury, but they made amazing prosthetics these days...

_"#4. The only truly incurable disease is stupidity."_

Exhibited to perfection by the petty officer in Engineering who, after six months of putting off this year's immunizations, came down with a raging case of Levodian flu. His excuse? "I've been skipping them for the last five years, and I never got sick before."

_"#5. There is no such thing as a textbook case."_

She'd almost choked Strauss purple for that one, as he presented a "textbook" case of cholelithiasis in a female Security officer during morning rounds and recommended elective surgery. A simple urine test revealed the true cause of the patient's nausea and abdominal discomfort.

All of this had happened prior to 0800, and in true Murphy fashion, things had only deteriorated from there.

As Karen stared contemplatively at the plaque, her commbadge went off.

"Captain Stryker to Dr. Coleridge. Your presence is requested at a staff meeting in the Arboretum in ten minutes." 

She acknowledged the message and stood with a sigh, heading out the main Sickbay doors and to the turbolift. _Well, at least today hasn't been boring..._

**1039 hours  
Arboretum 1**

Stryker paged Doctor Coleridge and Ensign Liz Archer, in a thinly disguised excuse from their duties to come to the Arboretum for an hour or two.

While the couple waited they sat on the grass, surrounded by a few birds, wild flowers and small trees from Trill, Venus flytraps, Betazoid bellsprouts, the beautiful but very poisonous Romulan Starlight Sweetness, and an African Protea.

**Arboretum 1**

The Arboretum was usually heavily visited this time of day, but right now, only two people were occupying the Arboretum.

Alice was feeling hyper. And quite playful, trying to tackle her husband on the grass when Karen walked in, a whimsical question mark almost written on her face when she saw the couple. 

He submitted and made himself fall. Karen joined them. "You are tired." Stryker said, pointing out the obvious.

"Long night." was the reply. "Captain, I thought you called a staff meeting."

"I did, sort of. Just you and Ensign Archer. We wanted some company, and thought you could use a break." Stryker told the Doctor.

"Sit down and relax." Alice said smiling.

"Just don't fall asleep on us." Stryker added.

Alice and Stryker laid on their backs. When Alice wasn't looking, Stryker reached for a Vulcan Stinging Fireweed's flower, grinning.


End file.
